Official MLBlog of the Kansas City Royals front office.

Spring Training Schedule Begins

Initially, Wednesday’s game against the Texas Rangers was slated to be just a charity, exhibition game that benefits the Surprise Sundancersand their efforts in supporting youth programs in the Phoenix West Valley area. The statistics wouldn’t count. The results weren’t going down in the books. The standings would not be in play.

Well…that has kind of changed now.

It’s still a charity game between the two teams that share Surprise Stadium, but it’s also going to count as an official Cactus League game, which means…

First pitch for the exhibition game is at 2:05 p.m. (CST) with the Royals taking the field as the home team. The game is the first Cactus League game in the Phoenix area and puts the Royals exhibition schedule at 31 games with 14 as the home team. Following Wednesday’s exhibition, the club will then have a Spring Training "off day" on Thursday before heading to Peoria, Ariz., on Friday to play the San Diego Padres (the first 610 Sportsradio broadcast of the season).

Also for Wednesday’s Spring opener…the Royals will venture into the world of webcasting. Basically, to listen to Royals games on the web, all you have to do is purchase a subscription (only $14.95) to Gameday Audioat royals.com. For this price, you will be able to listen to every Royals exhibition game this season as well as all 162 regular season games and all the post-season games. Not a bad deal, right? Sign up (here) now!

According to the Media Relations release on the webcasts, new Royals broadcaster Steve Stewart will be the front runner for the exhibition webcasts, but will be joined periodically throughout the spring by his fellow Royals broadcast partners, as well as "members of the Royals baseball operations department and various media in attendance on a given day." Fans will be able to interact with Steve in the booth by emailing radiobooth@royals.comduring the games. Here’s what Steve had to say about it…

“I was very fortunate to provide the webcasts last year for the Cincinnati Reds and the fans loved it,” said Stewart. “This is a fantastic chance for Royals fans, not only in the Midwest, but worldwide, to keep up with the club all spring, as well as webchat with me and my guests during the course of the game. I can assure our fans that it will be an enjoyable experience.”

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